Rain Barrel Art!!!

Exciting news! I’m a semi-finalist artist in the 2017 Rain Barrel Art Project for Save The Local Waters! 50 artists were chosen from over 150 submissions. I’m honored and excited to dive into a new project for a great cause.

I took inspiration for my submission from one of my favorite artists, Jackson Pollock. I enjoy Pollock because FILL IN I’ve used a Pollock inspired technique on a coffee table and serving trays but never on something like a rain barrel. This is going to be a chance to try out some new techniques.

Before the paint brush hits the rain barrel, the committee is hosting a workshop for the artists at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens. We’ll get tips about how to paint the rain barrels and even have the chance to try out some techniques. We’ll also get our rain barrels. As a bonus, we’ll get a tour of the zoo with a focus on some of their water saving initiatives. Plus zoo babies!

I’m proud to use my art and skills on this project. I hope it helps raise a ton of money! Water resources, even here, are important.

After the Rain Barrel is done, it and all the others will be on display at the Zoo from April 1st to the 20th. On April 20, it will be auctioned at the Rain Barrel Art Benefit Auction.

This is the first project I have entered for something like this. Making a water barrel look like something you want in your yard is going to be a lot of fun.

It took me some thinking and fiddling before I could come up with what I wanted to do for the design. I work with a lot of older items, materials reusing and “upcycling” them. Of course, there are a variety of paints and many finishes involved with them. One I have used for a couple of projects is based on the techniques used by Jackson Pollock in his abstract expressionist projects. In the end I decided to base my design for the Water Barrel using that Jackson Pollock inspired technique which makes an a wonderful paint splatter color and texture. The colors remain bright and clear with the overlays creating a texture effect on the object being painted. And it will look great anywhere.

It’s going to be a blast doing abstract expressionism on a rain barrel! And maybe a bit of a challenge. We shall see.

A blank canvas

A lot of work and time spent preparing the barrel to take paint. Sand and prime, sand and prime before I had a nice blank canvas to work on. And now I have the first application of paint I did over the weekend.